compiled by Bruce Wainwright and Martin Flynn

World news - On the side

A novel approach in India
India, home to the world’s second largest HIV population, may have found a perfect cocktail for safe sex: a free condom with every bottle of alcohol sold at liquor shops. “The new measure is part of an awareness campaign among those who drink about the dangers of unsafe sex,” said the head of the state-run Aids Control Society.

HIV concerns in Eire
Calling for new legislation to make HIV a mandatory notifiable disease, the Irish National Disease Surveillance Centre is highlighting concern at a decrease in the quality of data on HIV. Almost 400 hundred new cases of HIV were diagnosed in Ireland in 2003, up 10 per cent on the previous year.

Nepal PWA group in crisis
Prerana, Nepal’s first HIV/Aids organization, faces closure and is appealing for urgent international financial support. Since 1997, Prerana has provided individual and telephone hotline counselling to over one thousand individuals, run numerous educational programmes for young people and been at the forefront of many advocacy campaigns in Nepal.

Reggae stars in Jamaica
‘fueling violence’
“Until Jamaica addresses the homophobic violence, it will have no hope against this epidemic,” writes Rebecca Schleifer in a recent Human Rights report. “If the Jamaican government is serious about fighting the country’s Aids epidemic, it should stop promoting brutality against gay men.”

Multinationals in SA worried about Aids toll on profits
Manufacturing and mining represent the two largest segments of the South African economy, accounting for about 22 and 23 per cent of GDP. They are also the two sectors most affected by Aids, and absenteeism due to ill health is a major problem driving up costs, according to the country’s Bureau for Economic Research.

words
“It’s a depressing day, an emotional day. But it’s also a day to commemorate another day of being on the planet.”
American football star Roy Simmons, on World Aids Day.

“This year’s event is even more exciting, given that we are
celebrating 20 years of Aids...”
A World Aids Day press release from Ronald Trahan Associates, PR for Roche Pharmaceuticals.

“African men who have become disempowered through a history of colonialism, racism and poor economic prospects are unwilling to give up the power they hold over women.”
Mike Crawley, in the Christian Science Monitor.

“We tend to round up the usual suspects: politicians, quacks and violent men, and blame them for helping spread the disease. Blaming has not got us very far.”
South African ‘Star’ newspaper.

“Some elderly women go to the seashore to buy fish directly from fishermen, but on days when they have no money, one has to offer sex to the fishermen in order to get fish to feed the grandchildren.”
Help Age International.

“Poverty is one of the key drivers of this epidemic. Unless we tackle issues of trade, debt and the lack of trained healthcare workers, we cannot win the battle.”
A report from Christian Aid.

“Over the past few years, clinics have become increasingly busy and, as a result, it is very difficult to get an appointment. Twenty years on I am still working in a Portakabin.”
A nurse working in sexual health in north London.